Marriots 50/50 Plan

[doel12]

Hi All:

Has any one taking advantage of Marriots 50/50 plan. I was on the phone with a Marriots Rep to check on prices for Ko' alina and Timberlodge. She quoted me $20,050 EOY with 85,000 points and Timberlodge for 16k-18K EOY. She then informed me that they have a 50/50 plan. If I purchased both of these at the same time, the cost would be $31,000 with 150,000 points.

It seems to me this is the way to go. It breaks down to $15,500 a piece. Which is pretty close to a EOY resale for KO'olina which is about $13,000 without points.

Has anyone taking advantage of this program. What am I missing? Sounds good to me. thanks

 

[turkel]

It's a great plan if you want to spend $31,000 and get the Marriott points. But couldn't you get an ey resale for $24-25,000? Are those points worth $6000-7000? I guess you would get 2 sep. deeds and if those are the resorts you always wanted to go to you save on exchange fees. Also you could sell 1 or both later if your needs change. Is that price mountain view at KO and sum/wint at TL?

 

[doel12]

It is a garden view for Ko' Olina and I believe it was a Platinum week non-ski week for Lake Tahoe. I think long term the 6k-7k difference could be made up in points. Our plan was not to spend 31k, but these are both lock-offs which you can make it into a 4 week vacation at a cost of less $7,750 a piece with points.

 

[grgs]

Do a search on "Marriott Timberlodge EOY" and you'll find someone (potchak) who did something very similar to you. You can see the responses they received.

Glorian

 

[Dean]

Marriott usually charges 60% of the EY price for EOY. They have been doing 50% for each for two EOY for a couple of years now. If you're looking at buying retail anyway, it can be a good choice. But I think there are very few instances were retail is a reasonable way to go.

 

[JimC]

We did this with Shadow Ridge and Canyon Villas. These were two resorts we wanted to use regularly, but not every year. It saves us the exchange fees by having an EOY at each. Closing costs will be higher, because you have two closings, two deeds, etc. But in the long run we felt we would be ahead.

A special situation such as this or buying when a resort is first offered or if you are trying to get a difficult holiday week are the best reasons to buy retail.

The points offered with our purchase partially offset the retail premium. The points incentives are not nearly as lucrative as they once were; although they may return if the market slows sufficiently at some point. Buying retail did save us the hassle of finding those contracts on the resale market.

 

[doel12]

How do you do a past search? Thanks

 

[grgs]

Click on the search box at the top. Input Marriott Timberlodge EOY and click on "go." Also, you might try going to the advanced search and search by user name to find all the threads started by "potchak."

 

[Beverley]

Personally, getting 2 lockoffs in todays prices from Marriott with points for 31K is pretty good. You will benefit with 4 weeks trading, save some on MFees because of the every other year and could trade in for points .... Having said all this, our greatest challenge is that we NEVER put our lockoff units in for points because the point values are not high enough to offset the loss of 2 weeks.

For instance, we own Aruba and West Palm, both are L/O's. Aruba gets 90K points and West Palm (OP) gets 100K. If I turn in either unit unit I must give up both sections ... the full 2 bedroom ... to get the points. That would "cost" the equivalent of 2 weeks in II trades. Both trade really well and that amount of points is not enough for even one hotel week.

I am an advocate of the points, I do feel they are worth it, but not on a L/O unit. If you can find it resale buy it resale. Just becareful that you do not get a resale deal that is less than 60% of Marriott's current price or you will risk their first right of refusal.

Beverley